%182. "The New Roof."%--The Constitution provided that when nine states had ratified, it should go into effect "between the states so ratifying." While it was under discussion the Federalists, as the friends of the Constitution were named, had called it "the New Roof," which was going to cover the states and protect them from political storms. They now represented it as completed and supported by eleven pillars or states. Two states, Rhode Island and North Carolina, had not ratified, and so were not under the New Roof, and were not members of the new Union. Eleven states having approved, nothing remained but to fix the particular day on which the electors of President should be chosen, and the time and place for the meeting of the new Congress. This the Continental Congress did in September, 1788, by ordering that the electors should be chosen on the first Wednesday in January, 1789, that they should meet and vote for President on the first Wednesday in February, and that the new Congress should meet at New York on the first Wednesday in March, which happened to be the fourth day of the month. Later, Congress by law fixed March 4 as the day on which the terms of the Presidents begin and end.[1] [Footnote 1: The question is often asked, When did the Constitution go into force? Article VII. says, "The ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the states so ratifying the same." New Hampshire, the ninth state, ratified June 21, 1788, and on that day, therefore, the constitution was "established" between the nine.] %183. How Presidents were elected%.--It must not be supposed that our first presidents were elected just as presidents are now. In our time electors are everywhere chosen by popular vote. In 1788 there was no uniformity. In Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia the people had a complete, and in Massachusetts and New Hampshire a partial, choice. In Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Georgia the electors were appointed by the legislatures. In New York the two branches of the legislature quarreled, and no electors were chosen.